Adolphe Dugléré and the Creation of Quenelles de brochet à la Nantua.
In the early 19th century, a famous chef named Adolphe Dugléré came up with a new version of quenelles. These new Quenelles became very popular.
Adolphe was born in the early 1820s in the city of Lyon. It was here that Dugléré began his culinary career at a very young age, working in various restaurants and hotels around the city.
He eventually made his way to Paris, where he worked in some of the city’s most prestigious restaurants, including the Café Anglais, where he served as head chef for many years.
Upon Dugléré’s taking his new position at Café Anglais in Paris, he found himself with the ability to imagine, conjure, and serve various takes on French culinary classics.
It was on one such flurry of creative culinary force that it occurred to him to take some Quenelles and finish them in his own well-honed lobster sauce.
Suffice it to say the customers raved about it. This dish, known as Quenelles de Brochet à la Nantua, went on to become a classic French dish in its own right and is still served in many restaurants today.
In modern times, some menus will include this dish but are prepared with a crayfish sauce finish rather than lobster, perhaps depending on seasonal availability. For anyone familiar with both, they’re essentially the same creature anatomically, just that Lobsters far outweigh Crayfish.
Quite simply, the innovation was thus:
Take traditional Quenelles of Lyon, which were made with a mixture of ground fish, and embellish them with a rich lobster sauce. That slight remix of the original style made a rather unexpected impact.
Dugléré’s creation of Quenelles de brochet à la Nantua cemented his legacy in French cuisine and culture. He is remembered as one of the great French chefs of the 19th century, and his dish is still considered a classic in French cuisine.
There is a camp that disputes Dugléré’s authorship of the recipe. This crowd says that the Quenelles recipe was instead created by a chef named Jean-Baptiste LaGrand in the 19th century, at the famous restaurant “La Mère Fillioux.”
While it is in the town of Nantua, in the eastern part of France, which is where the dish gets its name, there does seem to be this conflicting account of who actually prepared the dish originally.
In the meantime, while the historians are honing in on the finer details, we can all give them a taste and give the dish a try, preparing it.
Let us know in the comments if you try preparing it and what you thought of it once you tasted it.
Click here to get our recipe for Quenelles with Nantua Sauce.